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IOC suspends Olympic official Nuzman in vote-buying case

ZURICH — After being arrested in Rio de Janeiro and accused of storing gold bars in Switzerland, Brazilian Olympic Committee president Carlos Nuzman was suspended by the IOC on Friday.

The decision came hours after Brazilian authorities investigating a 2016 Olympic vote-buying case asked for help from prosecutors in Switzerland.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee was also provisionally suspended and had its funding frozen.

Nuzman, a 75-year-old lawyer, was also removed from the IOC's panel overseeing preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee announced the decisions after an emergency conference call of its executive board. The IOC said its decision will not affect Brazilian athletes, who will continue to receive scholarship funds and be eligible for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Nuzman was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of obstructing investigators from Brazil and France, who detained and questioned him one month ago. Their case explores suspicious payments linked to how the city won the hosting rights for the 2016 Olympics.

Brazilian prosecutors revealed Thursday they believed Nuzman has stored 16 bars of gold in a depository in Geneva and greatly increased his wealth while overseeing the Rio bid and organizing committees.

The office of Switzerland's attorney general said Friday it is "currently analyzing" a request from Brazil for legal assistance.

"The request has been transferred from the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) to the (attorney general's office) as the competent authority for execution," the federal office said in a statement.

Brazilian prosecutors have implicated Nuzman in a bribery scheme of at least $2 million to help win votes from IOC members, who chose Rio as host city in 2009 in a four-city contest. The losers were Chicago, supported by then-President Barack Obama, Madrid and Tokyo.

Nuzman is believed to be a central figure in channeling at least $2 million of a Brazilian businessman's money to Lamine Diack, a former IOC member from Senegal who helped control African votes.

Diack has been arrested in France as part of a wider case of alleged corruption while he was president of track and field's governing body, including blackmailing athletes to cover up doping cases.

The French case has also implicated four-time Olympic sprint medallist Frank Fredericks of Namibia. He was an IOC executive board member in October 2009 when he got a $300,000 payment linked to Brazil and the Diack family on the day Rio won.

On Thursday, Brazilian authorities said Nuzman's net worth increased by 457 per cent in his last 10 years as the country's Olympic leader.

Nuzman was arrested because investigators found he tried to hamper the investigation by regularizing assets likely gained with illicit money. Last month, he allegedly amended his tax declaration to add about $600,000 in income.

Nuzman's lawyers said he denies wrongdoing, and the IOC said he had the presumption of innocence while its ethics commission studies the case.

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